Interactive graphic allows you to navigate around Mars surface

Curiosity is now making itself feel at home on Mars and that has resulted in better images being sent everyday. Among all the photos, a panoramic photo has been chosen to and an interactive image has been created out of it, which allows you to navigate the planet’s surface as easily and clearly as we do with Google earth.

Panographer and Web developer Andrew Bodrov, whose earlier achievements include that of Landmarks from Egypt and Red Square. The image is present on blog.360cities.net and users can now see Mars like they are standing up and above the planet.

The rover landed in Gale crater last week and since then it has been going under tests and upgrade, and in fact a four day upgrade is going on. The software upgrade aims at providing the ability to drive over the planet’s rocky terrain and the ability to use the geochemistry lab’s sampling system.

Ashwin Vasavada of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory gave us an insight about the mission. The rover is supposed to find a path to Mount sharp where traces of water were seen. More than 5-6 path shave been identified by the scientists and even if the journey commences earlier than anticipated, it will take more than an year to reach the destination. The rover is supposed to traverse almost the length of a football field everyday.

The six wheeled rover will make halts in its way to observe and conduct studies on rocks and soils. After its robotic arm and drill are tested successfully the keys will be handed over to the scientists. The most interesting thing about the terrain is that in a section of north wall of crater a network of valleys is seen which is assumed to be formed by the erosion caused due to water coming from outside.

The whole team has been congratulated by President Obama himself and he was quoted as saying by the DailyMail that:

“Through your dedicated effort, Curiosity stuck her landing and captured the attention and imagination of millions of people. It’s really mind-boggling what you’ve been able to accomplish, and being able to get that whole landing sequence to work the way you did is a testimony to your team.”

The force with which curiosity landed on Mars created about a one and half foot hole which makes the inner layers of the planet visible. This flight is one of the most successful ever in the history of mankind and this will be a milestone in our knowledge of the distant world.